1

The Structure of the

Meetings and Events
Industry

This chapter covers:

The value of meetings

Meetings terminology

Classification of meetings

Segmentation of demand for meetings

Meetings of all kinds from international conferences and summits for

several thousand delegates to board meetings, training seminars and
team-building events for smaller groups of colleagues are playing an
increasingly important role in the business, intellectual, political and
cultural life of communities worldwide. Demand for meetings comes
from a wide variety of sources including all types of businesses, governments, academics, and the vast range of associations, clubs, federations
and interest groups that bring together people with a common interest,
from a shared profession to a hobby/sport/leisure pursuit enjoyed by the
members.
In order to meet this escalating demand for such gatherings, there
has been considerable investment in meetings facilities in all regions of
the world over recent years. Cities and resorts worldwide have spent
vast sums of money constructing purpose-built conference centres
or renovating existing facilities. The global hotel industry has also
recognised the importance to its profitability of hosting and servicing
meetings, and has expanded its offer in this area; and an increasing

Winning Meetings and Events for your Venue

number of residential conference centres are available in universities

and colleges. There is also a rapidly increasing number of unusual
venues being promoted as places where meetings may be held. Unusual
venues are based in establishments that have a primary function that is
not directly linked to the hospitality/meetings industry. These include
cultural venues (museums, cinemas, theatres, etc.), sports venues
(football stadia, racecourses, cricket grounds, etc) and tourist attractions
such as historic monuments, castles, zoos and aquaria, and theme parks).
In The Future of Booking Venues by Eades and Brewerton for the UKs
Hotel Booking Agency Association, Tim Chudley, Managing Director of
the Sundial Group of venues is quoted as saying:
The past 10 years as a period of time has seen most notably the
massive increase in supply. It does seem now that every type
of location is hoping to tap into the meetings and conferences
market as a secondary revenue stream. Competition can now be
found in the form of stadia, museums, tourist attractions and,
in one village close to one of our properties, the village shop
promoting meeting rooms.
Venues of all types play a vital role in the hosting of the great variety
of meetings and events that take place in destinations worldwide, and
this makes them key stakeholders in the meetings industry. This chapter
examines the structure of the industry, but begins with a review of the
value of meetings to the destinations and venues that host them and to
the people who initiate them and attend them.

The value of meetings

The different types of value arising from the hosting of meetings and
events may be divided into two categories: the tourism-related benefits
and the non-tourism related benefits.

Tourism benefits
In terms of the tourism benefits, those attending meetings fill hotel
bedrooms, seats on aircraft and other forms of transport, and places
at restaurant tables; and their spending can extend into local shops as
well as entertainment and leisure facilities. More than that, travel for the

The Structure of the Meetings and Events Industry

purpose of attending meetings often represents the high-quality, highyield end of the tourism spectrum, with corporate meetings in particular
creating demand for premium seats on trains and planes, and the higher
categories of hotel accommodation.
In addition, meetings attendance is generally an all-year-round activity even if demand tends to dip in the summer months. In this sense,
the seasonality pattern for meetings-related travel complements that of
leisure-related tourism, which for many destinations and hospitality
businesses peaks in the summer months. Moreover, meetings tend to be
scheduled during the working week, again providing complementarity
with the leisure market, which generally focuses on weekends.
Finally, the tourism industry benefits from meetings whenever participants in such events take one or more of these actions:

Come accompanied by family members or friends who make use

of the tourism attractions of the destination

Extend their business trip for leisure-related purposes, by arriving

some days before the meeting and/or staying on a few days after
the meeting, in effect turning the trip into a holiday

Return to the meetings destination, with friends or family, for

leisure purposes, motivated by the experience of their trip to the
same destination in order to attend a meeting.

Non-tourism benefits
The non-tourism related benefits take the following forms:

Many cities have invested in meetings facilities, such as flagship

conference centres, as an element of plans to regenerate urban
areas in need of re-development. From Glasgow and Philadelphia
to Cape Town and Dublin, large-scale meetings facilities have
been built as a means of bringing prosperity and animation back
into previously neglected parts of those cities.

More intangibly, the fact of hosting a conference, in particular

an international event, can be a source of pride and prestige for
the city or country where the conference takes place, as well as a
means of creating an image or brand for itself, in the international
community of nations.

Winning Meetings and Events for your Venue

Tony Rogers makes the point well in his book, Conferences and Conventions:
There is undoubted prestige in being selected to host a major international conference, and some less developed countries would see this as
a way of gaining credibility and acceptance on the international political
stage. For example, there can be little doubt that national pride and
image-building were factors behind Yugoslavia (as it then still was)
offering to host the 1979 International Monetary Fund conference, and
building a new venue, the Sava Centar in Belgrade, specifically for that
event.
In a 2009 briefing paper released by the global peak body of the
meetings industry, the Joint Meetings Industry Council, entitled Key
Messages for the Meetings Industry, a wide range of benefits derived
from business events were identified. Apart from the more obvious
economic impacts generated as a result of delegate expenditure, the
benefits listed in this paper that are critical to the business, scientific,
professional, educational and cultural life and development of a community were:

Meetings attract investment by attracting an often influential

audience of participants, and creating opportunities for showcasing local products, services, and investment opportunities.

Meetings enhance professional development by bringing regional

and international expertise into the community, where it is accessible to local professionals.

Meetings enhance science and technology, which helps generate

new forms of technology itself, improves understanding and
access to it, and helps improve local knowledge and skills by
bringing outside information and technology into the host community and providing a vehicle for local businesses and professionals to access the latest developments in their respective fields.

Meetings promote cultural exchange by providing new forums for

cultural exchange and new opportunities to expose local culture
to national and international audiences.

Elaborating upon the third of the JMIC impacts listed above, Jago
and Deery, in their publication, Delivering Innovation, Knowledge and
Performance: The Role of Business Events, focused on the potential of